.C638 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



II Mill llll 
DDDDSD273DS 












.«•'•* ^< 









*„ <y 



>*\--^. *> 



i. 









xV 






c ° 












,<£ 



VV 






v. 












--\, 







'*. 






^o 5 



■S- 



4 Q. 



p* 



i 



M. 



H?V 






v^ 









^ 



^ 

^ 






.<V 









^°^ 












^~ 



4°, 



A o^ 



SPEECH 



OF 



CLAYTON, 



AT THE DELAWARE WMG MASS CONVENTION, 

HELD AT WILMINGTON, JUNE 15, 1S44. 



Fellow Citizens: 

The chief object I have in view, in this day 
addressing you, is to call back your attention, 
and th-it of the country at large, from the many 
distracting topics which now agitate the public 
mind, to the greatest of all the issues involved in 
the Presidential Election. The great question 
to be decided by that Election is a question of 
BREAD — a question whether we shall abandon 
the whole principle of Protection extended to the 
Laboring Classes of this Country by the Tariff 
Act of 1842, and adopt in lieu of it a Tariff dis- 
criminating lor Revenue and against Protection ; 
a question whether we shall go back, by our own 
voluntary act, to that state of colonial vassalage 
which existed in this country while England held 
us in subjection, and her Statesmen boasted that 
they would not permit us to manufacture a hob 
nail for ourselves; a question whether we shall 
now surrender to England one of the most essen- 
tial blessings resulting from that independence for 
which the Whigs of the Revolution successfully 
contended. To every reflecting mind it must be 
apparent that but few subjects can be decided to 
the satisfaction of a majority of the People at a 
single election ; and it is the old trick of design- 
ing politicians, to escape defeat upon subjects in 
controversy vitally affecting the country, by mul- 
tiplying the issues to be decided, distracting the 
attention of the People, and dividing the majority 
on the dreaded questions by others of inferior im- 
portance. These are the tricks of all the enemies 
of Whig principles of the present day. Those 
gentlemen are well aware that a vast majority of 
the freemen of this country are deeidedly hostile 
to tjpe modern Free Trade doctrines, and as deci- 
dedly friendly to the Whig Tariff of 1842, embra- 
cing the Whig principles of Protection to Home 
Labor. With their new Democratic doctrine of 
Free Trade, all the leaders among them are con- 
scious that they cannot go to trial before the coun- 
try without incurring inevitable defeat. Within 
the past year, the friends of the Protective Policy 
have, every where, routed their opponents when 
this question has been raised in the elections. — 



Our friends have unfrocked the partisans and ad- 
vocates of British interests in this nation. They 
have torn the masks from the faces of those who 
prefer English to American Labor. The sheep- 
skins h ive been stripped from their backs, and 
the wolves now stand out in their naked deform- 

il y- 

To insure our triumph m this jjreat question, 
our friends have at least adopted a determination, 
upon whi^h our wel are eminently depends, to re- 
ject, with scorn, alliance with, or assistance from 
all cow-boys, and such as pretend to occupy a 
neutral position between the contending parties 
on this question. This is a subject on which the 
American People can no longer be deceived by 
pretended friends or by enemies. And, at this 
moment, you see the foes of the American Sys- 
tem, conscious of their approaching destiny, if 
the two issues shall be submitted to the People, 
are every where endeavoring to direct public at- 
tention from it to other subjects, presented fo£ 
the purpose of exciting popular feeling. Let U3 
guard against the wiles of our adversaries. Our 
situation, at this time, may be compared to that 
of a large family about to emigrate to the West. 
We have one wagon belonging to our concern, 
with an excellent team attached to it. We can 
carry in it all that is really necessary for our 
safety and our happiness. But we cannot carry 
every thing which the caprice or fancy of every 
member of the family may induce him to throw 
into it. If we suffer every one to pile in, among 
our necessaries of life, all the trumpery which he 
may have purchased to carry with him, we shall 
soon find that there is not room enough for a 
hundredth part of it, and that one. team is utterly 
tillable to haul it. In this state of things, the 
only course left us, as sensible men, is to restrict 
the freight in the wagon to such things necessary 
to our safety and comfort, as we can certainly 
transport. But we will leave every one, who 
thinks be has the means of transportation, inde- 
pently of us, to lug along what he pleases ; and 
we will promise not to fall out by the way or 
quarrel with any friend who may choose to go 



B3r For sole at tbe office of The TRIBUNE. 



Price SI 25 per hundred, or $10 per tliousard. Orders must be addressed to 
GREELEY & McEERATH, Tribune Buildings, New- York. 



Speech of Hen. John M. Clayton, 



the journey with us, because he thinks proper to 
load himself down with articles which we are 
unable or unwilling to carry. The wagon and 
the whole cavalcade are now before me, about to 
start for the West. Henry Clay, the driver, knows 
the road well, and by his side sits Theodore Fre- 
linghuysen, who is a good guide and experienced 
traveler himself. Inside of the wagon I see the 
proceeds of the Sales of the Public Lands, with 
duties laid for Protection to home labor, a sound 
Currency, an economical Administration of the 
Government, and divers other good articles, 
necessary for our safety and prosperity. But 
there gees a fellow behind, driving an unbroken 
colt in a cart of his own, filled up with Texas 
Bonds and Texas Land Scrip. As he wishes to 
go along with us, we shall not dispute with him 
about his freight ; though I think he will not 
drive his cart over the mountains this year ? 
There comes another man, tugging in the rear 
with a wheelbarrow, loaded down with two hun- 
dred millions of Government Scrip to pay oft the 
S.ate Debts. 

He is a good fellow in the main, and decidedly 
in favor of our taking along every article in the 
wagon ; but will insist on his peculiar notion that 
these State Debts must go in company with us ; 
and while he works on his own hook, at his own 
barrow, I shall never quarrel with him or attempt 
to drive him back ; though, if I must express my 
opinion, I think his freight will be swamped 
among the fens of Salt River. There comes an- 
other lellow, with horses attached to a cumbrous 
machine, moving on skids, outside of which you 
may see the protruding muzzles of a whole bat- 
tery of cannon, and the inside of which is filled 
with ammunition, guns, drums and trumpets, and 
all the paraphernelia of War. That fellow is 
full of fight, and wants to go to war with either 
Mexico or England or somebody else, he is not 
very particular with whom. He wished to put 
all that freight inside of our wagon ; but when we 
satisfied him we had not room ior the fiftieth part 
of it, he agreed to bring it himself, with his own 
force, and I am not willing to drive him back, or 
quarrel with him about his whims ; for although 
he, like the others, has his peculiar notions, yet 
he, as well as they, is in favor of our carrying 
every article we have in our wagon, and desires 
to accompany us as far as he can to defend and 
protect it. Yonder comes another fellow, totter- 
ing under the weight of a knapsack, filled with 
treatises on Polemical Divinity and a thousand 
Sectarian Controversies. He ardently implored 
us to give him room in the wagon lor all that 
luggage ; but he was assured that if one half his 
tracts should be read on the road, instead of pro- 
ceeding in harmony together, there would be a 
general fight among the whole company ; after 
which, when Catholic and Protestant had pom- 
melled each other soundly, the company would 
be separated into rehgiuus factions, and would 
never reach their place of destination. 

He was informed, then, if he would take along 
his knap-sack, he must bear its weight, and keep 
its contents to himself; as the only tracts allowed 
to be carried in the wagon, or disseminated on 
the march, are those which inculcate religious 
toleration, in its widest and most liberal; 
aad breathe no other spirit than peace on eartl 



and good will among all men of all sects, classes 
and denominations. 

I can see also, (let me add) a rival train, with 
another wagon, behind all these, toiling hard to 
overtake ours, and bound for the same country ; 
where they mean to settle, as squatters, for four 
years to come, if they can reach it before us. 
This wagon is a heavy lumbering vehicle, being 
but a clumsy attempt to imitate a celebrated car- 
riage which came into fashion about the year 
1840. The horses are old political hacks, many 
of them bein^- spavined and wind broken : and 
most of them sorely distressed with the thumps, 
a disease contracted by them on a long journey up 
Salt River for years ago. Inside of this wagon 
you may see pondrous safes and chests of iron, 
upon which thebmzen capitals are plainly legible, 
" Sub-Treasury separates the Goveknment 
from the Banks, and the People from their 
own Money." On many of these massive chests 
we read " Hard Money for the Office Holders, 
and Bank rags for other people." On the top of 
all them, they seem to have piled Ot-sa on Pehon, 
as if they designed to put all Texas upon wheels, 
including parts of Mexican States of Santa Fe, 
Chihuahua, Coohulia and Tamaulipas; the whole 
crowned with the Texas debt of untold millions ; 
by the side of which, on another package, you 
may read No Assumption of our State Debts by 
our own Government. But the heaviest weight 
of all presses on the driver's box where you may 
see James K. Polk, of Tennessee, holding his 
nags, four in hand ; while George M. Dallas, 
sitting by his side, vainly plies a hickory gad to 
the excoriated flanks of the jaded animals. The 
driver sits on a cushion of enormous weight, 
labelled " Free-Trade." Every part of this ve- 
hicle is of foreign manufacture. The very wood 
of which it is made, is of foreign growth — even 
the horse shoes were made by English black- 
smiths ; the harness is all manufactured out of 
English leather by English harness makers ; all 
the wheel tire, the axle trees, and even the bridle 
bits, were imported from Liverpool. No Ame- 
rican laborer, whether native or naturalized, was 
allowed to drive a nail into the wagon. Strapped 
up in the boot behind you may be seen & Broken 
Treaty with Mexico covered over with that 
" black flag," which Mr. Butler, in the last Bal- 
timore Convention, predicted would prove the 
funeral pall of a certain concern, whenever it 
should abandon the principles that a majority 
should govern. A band of discarded office hol- 
ders and office hunters surround the wagon, 
shouting, at the top of their lungs, for " Fiee- 
Trade and Texas," " Hard money and James K. 
Polk." There is a little fellow the editor of a 
paltry newspaper, blowing a penny-whistle, la- 
belled " Down with ell Corporations," while 
another of the same profession grinds a hurdy- 
gurdy to the old tune of " Bargain and Corrup- 
tion," arid the " Murdered Coalition." Near 
these is another of the same trade, riding on a 
donkey ; while he drums on the dead bide of the 
Bank of the United States. Behind these comes 
off a concerto, in which you may hear the praises 
of harmonious Democracy chanted, amidst every 
variety of sotnd, from the twanging of a Jews 
.harp to the thrumming of a banjo. Whether this 
asfeemblage shall ever proceed further on their 






Protection or No Protection. 



i 



fs journey than that Serborian bog which lies near 
the sources of Salt River, I leave others to con- 
jecture. Pharaoh pursued the Israelites till he 
was swallowed in tho Red Sea. I feel too good 
natured just now to foretell the destiny of James 
K. Polk and his followers. 

But, jesting apart, let me return, in all sober 
„i seriousness, to the true question, as I have al- 
ready stated it — protection or no protection for 
the country — bread or no bread for the laborer. 
rtU It is no part of my purpose to discuss that, ques- 
'tu_ tion at length. To enable others to understand 
it, I have only to refer them to the last article in 
the March number of Blackwood's Magazine. 
We may there learn how Englishmen reason 
among themselves when discoursing on the lollies 
of the visionary doctrine of Free-Trade ; and we 
may also learn from it how much credit we should 
k^ attach to articles of a contrary import, written 
by Englishmen for the American market. Eng- 
lish periodicals, written for the purpose of being 
. read by American citizens, have done more in. 
] jury to the cause of the American laborer than 
any equal number of publications on the same 
subject which have appeared in our country. 

In connection with this subject, my fellow 
citizens, let me say, that there are not wanting, 
in the ranks of our opponents, men who have 
been bold enough to charge Henry Clay and 
Theodore Frelinghuysen, the chosen champions 
of Whig principles, with having abandoned the 
protective policy, by their votes for the Com- 
promise Act of the 2d of March, 1833. It is 
my duty to defend these, my old associates in the 
public councils, against so unjust an accusation ; 
and that duty becomes peculiarly imperative 
, ^pon me, when inquiries are constantly addressed 
' to me, as they have been of late, in regard to the 
true character of the votes which they gave on 
^gthat memorable occasion. I cannot answer all 
,. i4 these inquiries by letter. I will, therefore, this 
Jday, attempt to answer them here; for I see 
" A chiel's araang them tnkin' notes, 
An' fui th he'll prent era ; " 

and I have reason to hope that his report of what 
I am about to say may reach those who have ad- 
dressed these inquiries to me. 

I was iw the Senate at the time of the passage 
of the Compromise Act, was a member of the 
committee which reported it, and had the beet 
possible opportunity of knowing the motives and 
objects of Mr. Clay, in tho introduction and pas. 
sage of that measure. His aim was not only to 
prevent a civil war and the dissolution of the 
Union, but to save the Protective Policy. — I am 
convinced that, but for the passage of that act, 
the protective system would have been substan- 
tially repealed, more than ten years ago, and 
every manufacturer in the country dependent 
f upon it stricken down. 

I know that nothing is more common than for 
us to hear certain individuals, who are utterly 
\ ignorant of the real circumstances which existed 
in the early part of the year 1833, in a spirit of 
idle bravado, boasting bow bravi ly they would 
have defied the threats of the Nullifiers — how re- 
polate they would have proved themselves, had 
the opportunity been offered them, in hanging up 
_a.ll the leaders of that faction, and how rejoiced 
'hey would have been in administering, through 



the swiftly willing agency of Gen. Jackson, a 
salutary castigation to what they term " the imbe- 
cile arrogance and bullying of South Carolina." — • 
These and similar remarks arc generally made 
for the purpose of introducing a condemnation of 
Mr. Clay for his agency in the passage of the 
Compromise Act, which they say was a sacrifice 
of the protective principle to prevent a war with 
the Nullifiers. Without doubting the courage or 
the sincerity of those who thus often boast of tho 
superior firmness and more manly bearing which 
they would have exhibited at that crisis, I will 
endeavor, briefly to show you that these gentle- 
men are ignorant, both of the effect and meaning 
of the act, as well as of the objects sought to be 
secured by its author. 

It is quite a common error that the act itse f 
proposes a. horizontal Tariff of 20 per cent, on a ' 
articles of importation, as the minimum rate of 
duties, and the final resting place at which the 
reduction of duties proposed by the act shall 
cease, and stand unchanged and unchangeable 
forever. At this day, gentlemen of intelligence, 
professing to understand and discuss the legal ef- 
fect of this, often speak of it as a law, the great 
object of which was, by a system of gradual dimi- 
nution, to reduce the duties as they stood under 
the act of 1832, to an universal levy of 20 per 
cent, at the expiration of nine years and four 
months. In other words, they regarded the 
Compromise Act as fixing one rate for all dutia- 
ble articles from and after the 30th of June, 1842, 
that rate being 20 per cent, ad valorem ; and as 
containing certain binding stipulations or pledges 
on the part of the authors of that law, that no high- 
er rate of duty should ever after that day be col- 
lected by the General Government. This suppo- 
sition, preposterous as it is, you have doubtless 
observed, is an opinion quite commonly expressed, 
and that, too, not un frequently by grave legisla- 
tors on the floors of Congress, That the enemies 
of Mr. Clay should have so expressed themselves 
is matter to be regretted ; but when the friends of 
the Tariff, and the very men who profess the 
utmost confidence in the rectitude and consis- 
tency of that great statesman, fall into the same 
errjr, it is high time the mistake should be cor- 
rected. 

It is perfectly true, that the first section of the 
act fixes 20 per cent, ad valorem, as the lowest 
rate at which dutiable articles should be admitted, 
after the 30th of June, 1842 ; but the third sec- 
tion of the act provides that, from and after that 
day, " duties upon imports shall be laid for the 
purpose of raising such revenue as may be neces- 
sary to an economical administration of the Gov- 
ernment ;" and also that such duties shall be as- 
sessed on the home valuation and payable in cash. 
The leading principles established by the act were, 
first, that after the 30th June, 1842, a sufficient 
revenue should be raised from the import duties 
alone to defray the expenses of the Government; 
secondly, that no more revenue should be so col- 
lected than should be demanded by an economi- 
cal administration of the Government ; thirdly, 
that the best possible guards against frauds on the 
Tariff should be established by the adoption of 
the new system of assessing the duties on the 
home, instead of the foreign value, and making 
those duties payable in cash. Whether these du- 



Speech of Hon. John M. Clayton, 



ties, from which all the revenue for the support of 
Goverment was to be derived, should be fixed at 
20 per cent, or at 50 per cent, or at any other rate, 
was, of course, a subject left for the future con- 
sideration and actiwn of Congress, whenever it 
should be discovered that the minimum rate of 20 
per cent, adopted by the first section of the bill, 
was insufficient for the support of Government. 
Nothing was further from the intention of those 
who passed this law than to attempt to prevent 
future legislation, discriminating with a view to 
protect Home Labor, in the contingency of a de- 
fectof revenue fromduties of 20 per cent. I have 
ever regarded the Tariff passed by the Congress 
of 1842, as a substantial compliance, in most re- 
spects, with this pledge in the Compromise Act 
with this exception only : that law, while it levies 
duties on imports to support the Government looks 
to the proceeds of the sales of the public lands as 
an auxiliary for that purpose; while the Compro- 
mise Act gave to me, as I thought when I voted 
for it, and to every friend of the protection system, 
at the same time a solemn assurance, that, after 
the 30th of June, 1842, the Land Fund should 
cease to be regarded as a source of revenue, and 
that all the real wants of the Government should 
be supplied exclusively from duties on imports, 
assessed so as to prevent frauds, and payable in 
cash 

To understand this subject, as it was really 
understood by those friends with whom I acted 
in the passage of the Compromise Act, it is ne- 
cessary to recur to some other proceedings co- 
temporaneous with it. Mr. Clay's Bill to dis- 
tribute the proceeds of the sales of the Public 
Lands among the States, which passed both 
Houses of Congress about the same time with 
the Compromise itself, was by us regarded as 
part and parcel of one great revenue and finan- 
cial si/stem, which we desired to establish for the 
benefit of the whole country. While temporarily 
surrendering the Land Fund to the States, to 
which it rightfully belonged, in the judgment of 
the Congress of 1833, we provided, in the Com- 
promise Act, that there should be a day fixed, at 
which, in accordance with a suggestion pre- 
viously made by General Jackson himself, the 
Land Fund should for ever cease to be regarded 
as a source of revenue by the General Govern, 
ment. It is true, that we should have acted 
more wisely, as the event proved, by incorpora- 
ting the provisions of a Distribution Bill in the 
Compromise itself. But who could have supposed, 
at that day, that President Jackson would have 
vetoed a bill which carried out his own sugges- 
tion ? Nevertheless, he defeated that great and 
salutary measure of Distribution, by means which 
no end can ever justify. He refused to return the 
bill with his objections, to the House in which it 
originated — unquestionably because he had rea- 
son to believe, that, had he complied with this, 
his constitutional duty, each branch of Congress 
stood ready, by a vote of two-thirds, to make the 
bill a law, in spite of his veto. 

I have said, that the Tariff of 1842 is, in my 
view, a substantial compliance, in most respects, 
with the principles of the Compromise Act, and 
the pledges given in that Act on the subject of 
the regulation of duties from and after the 30th 
of June, 1842. But it was not a compliance in all 



respects. In my humble judgment, had the Tar- 
iff of J 842 been passtd strictly in the spirit of the 
Compromise itself, it would have been a better 
Tariff for Protection than the law now in force. 
It would have better guarded the revenue against 
frauds in the foreign valuation ; and it would more 
effectually have checked excessive importation, 
which is one of the greatest curses of our country. 
The Distribution ot the Land Fund among the 
States, contemplated by the Compromise, and 
temporarily provided for by the Land Bill, would 
have put an end to the agitation of the question 
of Protection for ever; and the principle avowed 
and sustained by Mr. Clay, that, in laving duties 
for revenue, discrimination should always be 
made in favor of Protection, as an incident to re- 
venue, would have been the settled doctrine of 
the country. 

To show that this opinion is well founded, let 
us suppose that Congress, on the 30th of June, 
1842, had resolved to make a Tariff strictly in 
pursuance of the Compromise. The latter di- 
rected, that, after that, day, and not until after 
that day, duties should descend by a rapid reduc- 
tion, not of 10 per cent, but of the last half of the 
wholeexcess above 20 per cent, left after the 31st 
of December, 1830, and that reduction be 20 per 
cent, on the home value of the imports, unless at 
that time, the revenue from that rate of duty 
should be inadequate to support the administra- 
tion of the Government. Now how i-toof the 
facts on that day ? VVe had actually ir curred a 
national debt of more than $20,000,000, at that 
very time, under the operation of a higher tariff 
than 20 per cent, and that, too, with the aid of 
all the land fund, and bank stocks and bank div- 
idends besides. Our revenue had sunk so iow 
that the credit of the nation was, at that very 
moment, in the most deplorable condition. We 
had borrowed on that credit till foreigners would 
not lend us another dollar, and in our own mar- 
ket the six per cent, certificates of the loan re- 
deemable in twenty years, could not be sold to 
any considerable amount for any thing like their 
par value. We had approached the very verge 
of national bankruptcy, and but for the Whig 
revolution of 1840, which had elected a Whig 
Congress to decide our fate, we should at that 
moment have been in imminent peril of national 
repudiation. The depressed state of public credit 
was one of the contingencies anticipated by the 
friends of Mr. Clay, at the passage of the Com- 
promise, and we now know we were right. We 
foresaw that the duties never could descend to20 
per cent ; if that pledge to raise the duties to the 
standard of the wants of the Government, given 
in the act, should be fulfilled ; and our hope— our 
belief was that before they could descend, by the 
operation of the law, to 20 per cent, men of all 
parties, seeing that the Government could not be 
supported on that principle, would confess old er- 
rors, and join with us. under happier auspices, in 
so adjusting the Tariff as that, while the wants 
of Government would be supplied from import 
duties, ample protection, as incident to the reve- 
nue, would be freely accorded to us, without far. 
ther strife. If, then, Congress had, at that lime, 
raised the duties to the standard then fixed by the 
Compromise, we should have had a Tariff which 
would more effectually have protected home labor 



President Jackson against Protection. 



than the act of 1842 ; because, although the du- | 
ties would have been for revenue, with only inci- 
dental protection, (the very principle of the act of 
1833,) yet those duties, without the aid of other | 
sources of revenue, would haoe been still higher 
than tluse o/1842, and their collection far better 
guarded against frauds. 

But the Compromise act caused a gradual re. 
duction of duties until the 30th of June, 1842, 
and the question remains to be answered — " why 
did the friends of Protection to Home Labor con. 
sent to such a reduction even for a limited pe- 
riod." 

The answer might be a very short one. Under 
the circumstances in which we were then placed, 
it was palpable to the minds of those who voted 
for the Compromise that, unless we accepted that, 
we should have to submit to the speedy destruc 
tion of the whole Manufacturing Interest. But it 
is due to the subject that in answer to this ques- 
tion the circumstances to which I have alluded 
should be briefly explained. At the time of the 
passage of this law the violent opposition of many 
of our fellow citizens in the South, and of not a 
few elsewhere, to the whole Protective Policy, 
was unparalleled in the history of this country. 
South-Carolina, by her ordinance of Nullifica- 
tion, had openly defied the General Government, 
and had resolved that no duties should be col- 
lected within her limits. It is easy, at this day, 
after the storm has passed over, to speak of her 
resistance as a thing which could have been ea- 
sily crushed by the exhibition of a little firmness. 
I never doubted, nor do I believe that Mr. Clay 
or any of his friends ever doubted, that the power 
of this Government was amply sufficient to en- 
force for the time the collection of the duties on 
imports, in despite of all the threatened hostility 
of South-Carolina and all other enemies of the 
Protective Policy. But it is due to the truth to 
say, that at that time South-Corolina had many 
sympathisers, and not a few adherents, in other 
parts of the country. We were every day in 
danger of a collision which might terminate in 
bloodshed ; and in that event any man, tolerably 
acquainted with the American character, could 
anticipate, quite as well as I can now de- 
scribe, the imminent danger of a protracted and 
bloody contest, which, if it did not endanger the 
Union, as I firmly believe it would have done, 
must have rendered the Protective System hate- 
ful to our countrymen, as the exciting cause of a 
civil war, and incapable of being maintained, ex- 
cept by the butchery of American citizens by 
American hands. I never did, and do not now, 
believe that any such system can be long main- 
tained in a government like ours, if it cannot be 
upheld without a civil war. The friends of the 
Compromise, in the firm belief that the Protective 
Policy was entitled to the confidence and sup- 
port of the American People, and would grow 
up and establish itself in their affections, if a vio- 
lent civil strife could be avoided, desired, of all 
things, time — time for reason to resume her em- 
pire — time for the violent passions of men, then 
inflimed to the very verge of insanity, to sub- 
side ; and they consented to a gradual reduction 
of duties for a limited period, with a view to the 
ultimate safety of the protective principle itself, 
as well as to avert the horrors of a civil conflict, 



and to save the excited and deluded men who 
were rushing into these extremeties, from the 
consequences of their own folly. In the midst of 
all these considerations, then pressing upon the 
attention of the friends of Protection, there was 
another staring us in the face which is too often 
forgotten or overlooked. At the very commence- 
ment of the session of that Congress which passed 
the act, President Jackson, in his annual Mes- 
sage, threw off the cloak of a "judicious " Ta- 
riff, and openly arrayed the whole power of the 
Executive against the Protective System. Then, 
for the first time, we heard from him the declara. 
tion, that " Experience, our best guide on this as 
on other subjects, made it doubtful whether the 
advantages of this system are not counterbal- 
anced by many evils, and whether it did not tend 
to beget, in the minds of a Urge portion of our 
countrymen, a spirit of discontent and jealousy, 
dangerous to the stability of the Union ;" •' that 
a Tariff designed for perpetual protection had en- 
tered into the minds of but few of our statesmen, 
and that the most they had anticipated was a 
temporary protection ;" and " that those who 
took an enlarged view of the condition of our 
country must be satisfied that the policy of Pro- 
tection must be ultimately limited to those arti- 
cles of domestic manufacture which are indis- 
pensable to our safety in time of war." 

These and many other declarations against the 
existing Tariff in the President's Annual Mes- 
sage, almost instantaneously arrayed the mass of 
his party against the Protective policy through- 
out the whole Country. It required no gifted 
seer to predict its fate, if some conciliatory mea- 
sure were not speedily adopted by its friends to 
allay the existing excitement. The President's 
Message against the Tariff was communicated 
to Congress, at that session, on the 4th of De- 
cember; and with such expedition did his party 
in tke House of Representatives act on that oc- 
casion, in pursuance of his suggestions, that 
on the 28th of the same month, the Committee 
of Ways and Means reported a bill to repeal the 
existing Tariff, and in lieu thereof, to collect a 
revenue of but $12,500,000 by all imposts on 
Foreign Merchandize, the average duty on which, 
as proposed by the bill, was about 15 per cent, 
and that, to be assessed on the foreign valuation. 
This bill, which has sometimes been called Mr. 
Verplanck's bill, but which was really a mea- 
sure emanating from the Executive, was actually 
far advanced on its passage in the House, at the 
time the Compromise was under consideration 
in the Senate, and its final passage in the House, 
was no longer problematical. It was a measure 
which, if successful, could not fail to prove an 
immediate death-blow to the whole Protective 
policy. Its passage had been forced through the 
Committee of the Whole on the State of the 
Union, after an ineffectual effort by the friends of 
American Industry to impede its progress ; when, 
on the 23d of February, 1833, the friends of Pro- 
tection in the Senate made the last effort in their 
power to arrest its downward tendency, and to 
stay for as long a time as possible, the hand 
which was extended for its destruction. At that 
critical moment, the question for them to con- 
sider was not merely how much Protection was 
necessary for Home Labor, but how much of it 



Speech of Hon. John M. Clayton 



could be saved. The bill in the House, backed 
as it was by the power of the Executive, and the 
public sentiment in its f.ivnr daily increasing, in 
consequence of the President's denunciations ol 
the then existing: Tariff, might be temporarily ar- 
rested by the action of a few Senators ; but those 
very few Senators saw, that unless some com- 
promise could be effected, while they retained 
their slender an 1 very precarious majority in the 
Senate, the ultimate triumph of the destructive 
system, and that, too, at no distant day, was ine- 
vitable. 

Time can never efface my vivid remembrance 
of the nnxious responsibility felt by myself and 
those who acted with me at that moment. I did 
not rely upon my own judgment alone, nor upon 
that of my associates in the Senate, for the 
course I should adopt. I snug-lit the advice of 
one who was a citizen of my own State, and 
who stood, at the time, at the head of the manu- 
facturing interests of the country — a man whose 
extensive and minute acquaintance with the 
whole subject of the Tariff was rot exceeded by 
that of any other man in the nation — one who had 
embarked largely in manufacture himself, and, 
was deeply interested for other manufacturers and 
withal, one whose exalted character as a man of 
pure, patriotic and honest purpose was unsur- 
passed. I refer to the late E. J. Du Pont, of the 
Brandywine. At my solicitation, he came to 
Washington to advise with me on the subject, 
and, after fully weighing all the circumstances 
which surrounded us, anxiously advised me to 
accept the Compromise, and to exert myself to 
procure its passage. He expressed strong appre- 
hensions that we could not carry the Compromise 
in the face of the rival measure, which offered 
better terms to the enemies of Protection in the 
House ; and when I represented to hirn that 
those who had been threatened with a rope by 
the President would prefer our bill to the bill in 
the House, on account of the paternity of the 
latter — the possibility that we might for a time 
arrest the passage of any bill in the Senate, and 
the deep solicitude felt by the Nullifiers to pro- 
cure some measure of immediate relief, to 6ave 
them from the consequences of their own folly ! 
— he expressed the highest gratification at the 
prospect of the passage of the Compromise as 
the only means left of preserving the principle, 
to the maintenance of which he had devoted a 
great part of his own useful life. His judgment 
on the subject confirmed my own opinions ; and 
I owed while he lived a debt of gratitude for his 
assistance on that occasion, which, although I 
never had it in my power to repay, yet have I 
never failed, either before or since his lamented 
death, to acknowledge. Thus assured, my feeble 
aid was freely given to that great measure ; 
which, while it saved the manufacturing interest 
from sudden and utter destruction, soothed and 
conciliated the angry passions of men then ready 
to rush upon revolution and bloodshed, and gave 
ample time to the friends of the Protective policy 
to rally in its support before the dearest interests 
of the country could be fatally affected. Any 
attempt to withstand and repel the flood then 
rushing upon us would have been fruitless. It 
was clear that we should be swept away by the 
torrent. We preferred to divide, to divert, and to 



retard it. And 1 ti-t-n i nought, and still i tunic, 
that the mighty effort of Mr. Clay on that occa- 
sion to save his favorite measure from the dan- 
ger which threatened it from every quarter, was 
the most triumphant act of Ins life. 

After a most exciting debate on the merits of 
the bill, a great part ol which was never publish- 
e I in consequence of the feeling into which friends 
had been betrayed, who had always, before that, 
acted together on this subject, the question was 
taken on the engrossment ol the bill, on the night 
of Saturday, the 23d of February, 1833. and it 
was ordered to a third reading in the Senate by 
an overwhelming majority. At this stage, we ar- 
rested further proceedings in the Senate, in con. 
sequence of the constitutional difficulty of origi. 
noting a revenue bill in that body. But we hid 
secured our object, by thus indicating- to the 
House the measure to which we were disposed to 
accede. On the Monday following, being the 
25th of February, a successful motion was made 
in the House to strike out the whole of Mr Ver- 
planck's bill, and substitute the Compromise in 
lieu of it. The bill thus amended wasordered to 
be engrossed for a third reading on the same day ; 
and, shortly after, became the law of the land. 

It is too late now, after the experience the 
nation has had of General Jackson's influence 
while President, to pretend that it was not in his 
power in 1833 to have crushed the protective pol- 
icy. His party was in the zenith of its power. 
It had abandoned every principle formerly pro- 
fessed by it, to which he had become hostile. It 
had sacrificed every institution and every mea- 
sure which it had formerly advocated, as soon as 
he declared war against it. It is too late to say, 
that he had some friends among the tariff men, 
who could have influenced his own course. He 
had friends among the bank men ; he had friends 
among the internal improvement men ; and it 
was mainly by their aid that he was made a pro- 
minent candidate in 1824, and actually elected 
in 1828. Had the friends of the Bank, the in- 
ternal improvement system, and the tariff, fore- 
seen his policy in 1824, he could not possibly 
have obtained votes enough in the United States 
to have carried him into the House of Represen- 
tatives as a candidate tor election. His inten- 
tions on all these subjects were studiously con- 
cealed, pending his election ; and when they were 
finally disclosed, they exlubittd that generalship 
in politics for which he was deservedly distin- 
guished. He killed off the institutions of the 
country in detail, always selecting the weakest 
first, destroying that with the aid of the friends 
of the others, before he ventured to announce 
any hostility to the latter; and never attacking 
the strongest, until the friends of the weaker 
; measures, which had been victimized, became 
powerless. His first attack was upon the inter- 
nal improvement system, and although it was 
quite a favorite with most of his western and 
and northern supporters, on the day of his veto 
on Maysville road bill was sent to Congress, yet 
three weeks afterwards it had scarcely a friend 
in his party. The little remnant who dared to 
remonstrate against the veto were immediately 
proscribed, and turned out ol the political church. 
■ " Ucalegon proximvs ardet " The Banks' turn 
I came next. His determined hostility to that was 



Geo. M. Dallas and the U. S. Bank. 



disclosed immediately after he found himself sue. 
cessful in the destruction of the improvement 
system, and not before. " The General," said 
his friend, Felix Grundy, one day to me, "is a 
sportsman who must always have a cock in the 
pit." He had tried his apprentice hand on the 
internal improvements; and although, while he 
was a member of the Senate of the United States, 
he had, by all his votes carried that system to the 
most extravagant extent, and won golden opin- 
ions, by the latitude of his constitutional con 
struction, among the dupes in the west; yet he 
crushed the whole of it so effectually at a single 
blow, after he became President, that his friends 
lost all influence with his gigantic party. Em- 
boldenod by this success, by the eclat which the 
enemies of internal improvements bestowed up>n 
him, from all quarters, he sought new laurels of 
the same kind in a new field; and although, at 
no period before his election, had he even ven- 
turtd to whimper his hostility to the Bank; al- 
though during the whole period of his service in 
the Senate of the United States, when, if he had 
harbored any hostility to the Bmk on the ground 
of its unconstitutionality or dangerous tendency 
to our liberties, his oath of fidelity as a Senator 
ought to have compelled him to disclose it, he 
never breathed a word against it ; yet as soon as 
he had got rid of the internal improvements, he 
declared war against the Bank, and effectually 
crushed that too. 

True it is that the Pennsylvania Legislature, 
by a unanimous vote, had shortly before declared 
for the Bank. Did not his party friends in that 
body, immediately after hearing the news of the 
Veto, wheel into the party line, and unite in all 
his denunciations of that institution ? True it is 
that George M. Dallas, the present Democratic 
candidate for the Vice Presidency, was the father 
of the Bank bill, was the man entrusted with the 
memorial of the Bank itself, was the chairman 
of the committee to which thatm morial was re- 
ferred, was the very man who reported the bill, 
voted for it, and spoke for it through all its stages. 
Did he not, with his brother Senator from Penn- 
sylvania, who voted in the same way, turn about 
within a few days after the veto, and denounce 
the Bank ? Who does not remember the predic- 
tions, at the time of that Veto, that there would 
be a great deseition from the President's party, in 
const quence ol that act, and who has forgotten 
that nearly all of those who talked loudest in his 
party in favor of the Bank were whipped in and 
became clamorous against it, as soon as his Veto 
appeared ? He vetoed the Bank bill in July, 
1833, and as we have already seen, within six 
months alter that he made war on the tariff. 
Can any reasonable man doubt what would have 
been its fate, if Henry Clay, with all the affection 
of a parent for the Protective Policy, had not 
rescued it from destruction by the Compromise 
Act of the 2d of March, 1833 ? But for the 
interp isition of Mr. Clay the passage of the bill 
reported by the Committee of Ways and Means 
in the House, would, at no very distant day, have 
been inevitable. What might have been the fate 
of the Union, I leave others to conjecture. My 
business now is with the Tariff alone, and I con- 
fine myself to that. 

Henry Clay was at the head of the Committee 



which reported the Compromise Act. James K. 
Polk of Tennessee, his present rival for the Presi- 
dency, was at the tail of the Committee on Ways 
and Means in the House which reported the bill 
to which I have referred. To understand Mr. 
Polk, it is now necessary to understand that bill. 
Although he was the last named member on that 
Committee, and in the rear of the column which, 
attacked the Tariff, there was no more thorough- 
going, no more denunciatory enemy of the Pro- 
tective Policy than J*mes K. Polk But let us 
try him by the bill which he and his colleagues 
on that Committee reported, and by his votes as 
they stand recorded on the journals of Congress 
against the Protective Policy. This bill, which 
will be lound to be the 14th document in the 
volume of Reports of Committees at the Second 
Session of the Twenty-Second Congress, reduces 
the duties on the 2d March, 1835, as follows : — 
all assessable, be it remembered, on the foreign 
valuation; on Woolens, to 15 per cent. ; on all 
not exceeding 35 cents the square yard, 5 per 
cent. ; on Worsted Stuff Goods of all kinds, 10 
per cent. ; on Worsted and Woolen Hosiery, 
Gloves, Nets, Bindings and Stockinets, 10 per 
cent. ; on all other Cloths, Merino Shawls, Flan- 
nels, Baizes and Cassimeres, Carpetings and 
Rugs of all kinds, 20 per cent. ; on Clothing, 
ready made, of all descriptions, 20 per cent. ; on 
all Cotton Goods, 20 per cent, except Nankins 
from India, on which Mr. Potts's duty was 15 
per cent. ; and Cotton Hosiery, Gloves, Mitts 
and Stockinets, on which his duty was ten per 
cent. ; as well as upon Cotton Twist, Yarn and 
Thread ; on all manufactures of Flax and Hemp, 
or Sail-Duck and Cotton- Bagging, 15 per cent. ; 
on all manufactures of Tin, Japanning, Gilt, 
Plated, Brass, and Polished Steel, 20 per cent. ; on 
common Saddlery, 10 per cent. ; on Earthen and 
Stone- Ware, 20 per cent. ; on all Side and Fire- 
Arms, Rifles and Muskets, 20 per cent. ; Bridle- 
Bits and Glass- Ware, 20 per cent. ; on manufac- 
tures of Iron and Steel generally, a duty of 20 
per cent. ; on Salt and Coal, 5 per cent. ; on 
every thing produced by the Farmer in the Mid- 
dle and Northern States, Mr. Polk, who is a 
Cotton-grower, recommended, in this bill, one 
unvarying standard of only 15 per cent ; 15 per 
cent, on Potatoes ; 15 per cent, on Oats ; 15 per 
cent, on Wheat and Wheat-Flour, Butter, Bacon, 
Beef and Pork. 

Such was the character of that bill, from the 
passage of which Henry Clay saved the country 
by the adoption of the Compromise. Had a tor- 
nado passed over all the manufacturing establish- 
ments of the country at that time, it would 
scarcely have proved a greater curse than that 
measure, which had the earnest support of Mr. 
James K. Polk, of Tennessee. By reducing the 
duty on wool to 15 per cent, it put the knife to 
the throat of every sheep in the country. By a 
duty of 20 per cent on ready made clothing of 
all descriptions, it struck down a whole class of 
the most industrious and useful mechanics of the 
nation. If it had been a bill purposely designed 
to set fire to most of the mechanic shops in the 
country, it would hardly have had a worse effect 
upon the laboring classes. It would have fed us 
on potatoes from Ireland ; and, at those periods 
when the farmers of the middle and northern 



A 



Sp°ech of Hon. John M. Clavtnn. 



States were suffering most from the pressuie ol 
the times, our bred stuffs would have been grown 
on the borders of the Baltic and the Blaek Sea, 
instead of on our own soil. Let. the farmers, 
mechanics and manufacturers of the country now 
answer what they think of the new candidate for 
the Presidency, James K. P«lk, of Tennessee? 

But I have nut yet done with IVIr James K. 
Polk, of Tennessee, and his bitter ho-tility to the 
Protective policy. Search the records of Con- 
gress, and you will find that, in every instance 
where the American System was attacked, while 
he was in Congress, he was its assailant, its con. 
slant and uncompromising foe. On the 23d of 
June, 1833, he voted for the motion of Mr. (Vic- 
Duffie, of South Carolina, to reduce the duty on 
cotton goods, costing not exceeding 15 cents ihe 
square yard, to 12£ per cent, ad valorem. On 
the same day he voted for Mr. McDuffie's motion 
to abolish the duty of $30 per ton on rolled iron. 
On the previous day he voted to reduce the duty 
on salt to 5 cents on 56 lbs. and voted against the 
duty on boots and bootees, on cabinet wares, hats 
and cap=, whips, bridles, saddles, carriages and 
parts of carriages, blank books, earthen and stone 
wares, and manufactures of mirble; and also 
against the duty on wool. With this exhibition 
of the friendship of James K. Polk for the labor, 
ing freemen of all classes in this country, I might 
leave him in their hands. I have not referred to 
his public speeches on the Tariff, winch always 
breathed the most settled hostility to the whole 
policy. Politicians sometimes speak one way, 
and vote another Mr. Van Buren always sp >ke 
against the Tariff, but generally voted for it. 
There were several polit.icans of this school in 
Congress at the pissage of the last Tariff. But 
James K. Polk was never of that school; He 
was, in deed as well as in word, on all occasions, 
an enemy to protection for the laborer. I mean 
to try him by his acts and his votes; and, with. 
out going further, I might leive those acts and 
votes, which I have thus exposed, to the indig- 
nant commentaries of ihe laboring men of all 
classes, with their friends and employers. 

But f propose to do full justice to Mr. Polk on 
this subject. The People shall not misunderstand 
the ex'eut of his hostility to the domestic industry 
of the country. On the 28ih day of February, 
1834, within one year after the passage of the 
Compromise, Mr. Hall, of North Carolina, in the 
House of Representatives of the United States, 
introduced a resolution, the object of which was 
to procure from the Committee of Ways and 
Means a report of a plan, accompanied by a bill 
to repeal the Protection guaranteed by the Com. 
promise, under the pretext of immediately reduc- 
ing the revenue to the necessary expenses of the 
Government ; and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 
who was at that time the Chairman of that very 
Committee of Ways and Means, voted tor that 
resolution. There were sixty. nine yeas in favor 
of that resolution and 115 nays against it. In 
voting for the resolution, the deliberate design of 
which was to V'olate all the pli dges given in the 
Compromise, Mr. Polk was backed by six of the 
nine members of that same committee, and by 
all the Nulhfiers and ultra anti-Tariff men in the 
House. This movement shows the dissatisfac. 
tion with the Compromise cherished at an early 



period by trie encm es of protection. '1 hey were 
sensihle that Mr. Clay had triumphed, by the 
salvation of his favorite policy ; and the strength 
of the vote against the resolution shows how 
great that triumph was. But one year previous 
to the introduction of Mr. Hall's resolution, it 
would have passed the House by an overwhelm- 
ing majority. The votes on Mr. Verplanck's bill, 
at that tune, proved that conclusively. But the 
fact, is, that the evil spirit of the storm — the i-p:rit 
of disunion — which had been raited by Nulliri a- 
tion, had b en subdued by that m=ster spirit, 
which, for thirty years, had exercised so great an 
influence in our public councils. That same 
master spirit had quelled the same demon, at the 
great crisis of the Missouri Compromise. On 
both occasions, Henry Clay saved the Union ; 
and, in the judgment of many, in each of them, 
he saved the Union at its last gasp. 

But the vote of James K. Polk and his allies in 
the war on Domestic Industry, was not the first 
exhibition of their spleen and hostility to the 
Compromise. Within six weeks afier the pas- 
sige of the act, the Executive of the United 
States began to violate its true spirit and its legi- 
timate construction, for the purpose of breaking 
down our American policy. Un the 20ih of 
April, 1833, the Secretary of the Treasury under 
President Jackson issued his famous Treasury 
Circular to all the officers of the customs in the 
United States. That circular contained an Ex- 
ecutive decree abrogating all the specific duties 
and the whole system of minimums in the exist- 
ing tariff laws. Under a pretext as foreign from 
the views of all the men with whom I acted in 
the passage of that law, as any thing the most 
remote,' this arbitrary edict declared, without one 
syllahle in the act to support it, that it was our 
intention, in passing it, to repeal these specific 
duties and minimums. It is scarcely possible that 
any hum m being could have been so ignorant as 
not to know that a specific duty could at any 
time he as well ascertained as an ad vulorem 
duty, and that these duties were convertible. By 
the Compromise, we simply provided that all ex- 
isting duties (whether specific or ad valorem) 
should be reduced according to a fixed ratio. 
This outrage on the law, which, because the Ex- 
ecutive, whose province it was to collect the 
duties, had perpetrated it, was utterly without 
remedy proved of great injury to all those manu- 
factures which depend d lor protection upon the 
minimums and specific duties. 

The injury inflicted on the manufacturing in- 
terest did not admit of legal redress, for the 
friends of protection could not by any possibility 
bring the question before any judicial tribunal, 
while the executive officers refused to sue for or 
cohect the duties in pursuance of their instruc- 
tions. Nothing remained for us to do but to sub- 
mit in silence, until the returning sense of justice 
to the country should induce the people to drive 
the enemies of Domestic Industry from the high 
places of the Republic. 

And here let me pau^e, for the purpose of en- 
treating every friend of Home Labor, who has 
evi-r thought of voting for James K. Polk, as 
President of the United States, to take warning 
by the example which I have now set before him. 
If there be such a man, let him not lay the flat- 



Polk, Calhoun, and the Home Valuation. 



tering unction to his soul that he can save his 
favorite policy, while the Executive of the United 
States, with the officers of the customs appointed 
by him, is hostile to that policy. They have the 
collection of the duties for protection; and he 
who would commit the limb to the custody of the 
wolf, will justly surfer for his own folly. 

Before 1 have done with this subject, I ought 
to mention, in this connexion, what I think is 
ano 1 her strong evidence of the hostility of James 
K. Polk and his political associates to the Protec- 
tive policy, and other true principles of the Corn- 
promise Act. Although they continued in power 
from the passage of that law until the year 1841, 
they never attempted, in a single instance, to 
provide either by prospective legislation or by any 
Executive regulation, lor any mode of assessing 
duties on the Home Valuation ; nor did they 
attempt to pass a law raising the duties, pros 
pectively, alter the 30th of June, 1842, to the 
real wants of the government; although they 
knew, as well through the whole session of Con- 
gress of 1840 — I, as we know now, one or both 
of these measures ought to be prospectively 
adopted, to save the Government from the dan- 
ger ol bankruptcy. The principle of the Home 
Valuation was a sine qua /ton, at the time of the 
passage of the act, with many of those who, like 
myself voted fur it for the purpose avowed by me 
at the time, of saving the Protective policy. We 
considered that a vote for the duties fixed by the 
act, to be assessed on this principle, was essential to 
all intents and purposes a vote for Protection; 
and we determined, therefore, to compel Vlr. Cal- 
houn and his peculiar friends in the Senate to re- 
cord their votes in the most unequivocal form, on 
the journal in favor of that, principle, And here 
I Cannot help complaining of the conduct of Mr. 
Calhoun, after the passage of this law, and espe- 
cially a'ter the period when most of us friendly 
to the Protective policy, who had voted with him 
for its passage, had left the Senate of the United 
States. How well his conduct comported with 
that feeling which a man who had received at 
our hands a shelter from the storm which threat- 
ened to annihilate him, I leave for him and others 
who are in the same category to determine. To 
explain his conduct. I must refer to a few facts. 

Wlnle the motion was pending to amend the 
bill by directing the assessment of the duties on 
the home value, a debate sprung up, in the course 
of which Mr Calhoun repeatedly argued that the 
amendment was unconstitutional, and declared 
that it was impossible for him to vote for it. A 
number of Tariff Senators, Iriendly to the Com- 
promise Act, with whom I was acting in concert, 
including, among others, Samuel Bed of New- 
Hampshire, A. Naudain of Delaware, Samuel 
Footeot Connecticut, and John Holmes of Maine, 
had resolved to compel ail the anti-protectionists 
in the Senate to vote for that amendment, in 
every stage of its passage, or to defeat the bill by 
laying it on the tabic. We foresaw all the ob. 
jeciions which have been since made to the 
adoption of ihat mode of preventing evasions of 
the law and frauds on the revenue ; and we knew 
that the amendment necessarily carried with it 
Protection to American Industry. It was an 
unpleasant prescription for Mr. Calhoun ; but it 
was not ill adapted to the peculiar disease under 



wheh he labored. After he had frfquently an- 
nounced his unalterable determination to vote 
against the amendment, which he as often said 
it would be a violation of the Constitution, and 
against his conscience to support, a motion was 
made — and by myself — to lay the whole bill on 
the table ; and, on the part of friends, I avowed 
our determination not to suffer it to be called up 
again during the session. At the request of a 
nullifying Senator, I withdrew that motion, to 
give himself and his friends time to reflect fur- 
ther ; but, at the same time, they were distinctly 
given to understand, that, unless they agreed to 
vote for the amendment, at every stuge of its 
passage, the motion should be renewed, and the 
bill nailed to the table; in which event, they must 
fight it out with the General Government. Those 
who are curious to consult the debates in Con- 
gress at that day, will see, by recurring to them, 
that, on the next day, when the bill was taken up 
again, every man among them, every enemy of 
the Tariff in the Senate, including the Honorable 
John C. Calhoun, of South Carolina, voted for 
the amendment! His vote for the Home Valu- 
ation stands recorded on the journals of the Sen- 
ate, at every stage of the passage of the bill ; and 
he contented himself at the time, as he declared, 
during the passage of the Tariff of 1842, (when 
this vote was invoked in judgment against him 
by a Tariff Senator) by saying that he voted for 
it UNDER AN ORAL PROTEST I It is 
true, that promises made under the fear of death, 
are not binding in law; but it would be utterly 
inadmissible to suppose that Mr. Calhoun acted 
under duress; and it would be equally inadmis- 
sible to suppose that his vote was given with a 
view to orocure the votes of others, then neces- 
sary for his own safety, — because such a vote 
would have been a palpable fraud upon them, if, 
at the time, he meditated an evasion of the pledge 
given in the amendment. 

Two days after the passage of this bill, Con- 
gress adjourned ; and, in hss than three months, 
we learned, to our perfect astonishment, from the 
public prints, that Mr. Calhoun was, in fc-outh 
Carolina, exulting among Irs followers on ac- 
count of what he called his triumph over Henry 
Clay ! In the session of 1839, he even went so 
far as to tell Mr. Clay, on the floor of the Senate, 
that, at the passage of the Compromise, he was 
his master? It is true that Mr. Clay reproved 
the folly of this arrogance, and even told him 
" that he would not even own him for a slave." 
But those who forced him into the position I have 
described, had then left the Senate ; and the swag- 
gering of Mr. Calhoun was not rebuked by them. 
1 finish this sketch by simply stating the fact that 
Mr. Calhoun is now understood to be a friend to 
the election of James K. Polk, the peculiar friend 
of General Jackson, who, in 1833, threatened to 
hang him as high as Hainan, and that Mr. C. is 
also the uncompromising enemy of Henry Clay! 

It may be thought due to the occasion that, as 
I have touched upon the principles of all the can- 
didates, I should devote a few moments to the 
consideration of the principles of Mr. Dallas. If 
the modern Democrats are satisfied with his votes 
in the Senate, I do not see why we should com- 
plain of them. He was the father of the bill to 
recharter the Bank of the United States, which 



10 



Speech of Hon. John M. Clayton. 



fell by President Jackson's Wto. He voted for 
the bill to Distribute iho Proceeds of the Sales <ii 
the Public Lands among the Slates, on all occa- 
sions withio my knowledge. And he pro'essed 
to be so strong a friend to ProUctinn and the 
Tariff policy, that he made a Speech against the 
Compromise, because it reduced duties, and voted 
against it, on its passive, for the avowed reason 
that there was not enough Protection in it for 
him. He stood alone by the side 01 a distin- 
guished Tariff Senator in ihe debate against ih> 
Compromise, thus appearing not willing to yield 
any thing to save the peace of the country. One 
Southern Democratic Senator spoke against the 
bill, and was burned in ■ ffigy by some ol his con- 
stituents for so doing, — although he actually vo'ed 
for it. I hope Mr Dallas may nuw share a bet- 
ter fate among his Democratic consituents in the 
same region.* It is due to him to say, that we. now 
understand that he has changed his principles on 
all these great measures ; and that some ot his 
friends insist that he is as hostile to Protection in 
every shape as James K. Polk himself. 

But Henry Clay has never changed ; and his 
exertions in the Public Councils, aided bv his in- 
structive eloquence, have done more lor the cause 
of the Laboring Classes in this nation, and have 
made more proselytes to the doctrines of the Pro- 
tective Policy thdn all the efforts of any other 
man in the country. At the time he commenced 
his labors in Congress to huild up the American 
System most of the young men of the nation 
were educated in the Frte Trade doctrines of 
Adam Smith, and the visionary theories of others 
like him, whose knowledge ol Political Economy 
was obtained in the closet, instead or the Council 
Chamber. I was one of those who had imbibed 
these opinions ; and if, fur the last twenty years, 
I have been the steady friend ol protecting Ameri- 
can Interests against Foreign Competition, it has 
been mainly owing to the conviction produced on 
my mind by the perusal of those masterly speci- 
mens of argument and eloquence with which he 
sustained his favorite policy in the halls of the 
Capitol of our Country. 

I have trespassed too long, fellow citizens, upon 
your patience; but allow me, in conclusion, by 
every consideration of what is due to the honor 
and interest of your country, by every feeling 
Which ought to warm and animate your hearts 
as American citizens, anxious for the protection 
of your own industry and the welfare of all the 
laboring classes among us, to entreat you not to 
overlook the true issue, to be decided in Novem- 
ber next, between Henry Clay, ol Kentucky, and 
James K Polk, of Tennessee. It is not a ques- 
tion about honors and offices and the rewards ol 
partisan service; it is not a question about the 
payment of the State Debts, or the acquisition oi 
foreign territory ; it is, as I have said already, 
emphatically a question of BREAD — a question 
whether we shall sink the mass of the laboring 
freemen of this country, who now gain their 
bread by the sweat of their brows, to the level of 
the European paupers, who labor for sixpence a 
day and find themselves. It is an axiom of 
eternal truth in politics, that a nation completely 
impoverished will soon be a nation completely 
enslaved. If, by the abandonment of protection 
to home labor, we reduce a half a million of vo- 



ters at an election to a condition of as servile de" 
pendence and as abject poverty as our Southern 
Slaves, how long can we rationally expect to re- 
main a nation ol freeman ? More than a hundred 
and forty years ago the treat; of Methuen, which 
was one of the principal causes of the beggary 
and want of Portugal, reduced her to the condi- 
tion oi a d- pendency ol England, struck down 
her national spirit, and enslaved her people. By 
that treaty she abandoned all tight to protect her 
own industry, and agre< d to adm t British woolen 
gooi'sol' all kinds without duty or restriction. 

Nineteen hundred years ago, when Rome had 
conquered ihe principal part of the woild, and 
freely admitted supplies from Syria and Egypt 
into Italy, ihe industry of her own citizens was 
paralyzed by the withdrawal of that protection 
to winch it was fairly entitled; poverty and want 
reigned where plenty had prevailed, and a race 
of men the bravest, and the freest that ever lived 
were speedily coverted into ihe subjects of a 
despot. And so keenly did Tacitus, one of the 
gravest and most philosophic of her historians, 
feel the degradation of supplying her legions 
from the industry of foreign countries, that he has 
announced with an outh wf vexaiion and disgust, 
that deplorable change in her condition. Let us 
take warning from the examples of other nations. 
Let us guard and protect the real, not merely the 
nominal independence of our country. The ever 
fervent aspirations from every true American 
heart will be for the pteservation of that inde- 
pendence. " Esto perpctua," MAY IT BE 
EVEKLASTI NG. 

The Great Issue for 1844. 

The Nashville Union declares that Polk and all 
his friends meit< th» present Tariff with abhor, 
rence. So Mr. Payne of Alabama, Mr. Henley 
of Indiana, and every supporter of Mr. Polk in 
Congress who has spoken for him, has declared 
that his success will be the downfall of the Ta- 
riff Hear Mr. Benton state the issue for 1844: 

" The attention itself is now on tried before the Areopagus 
of the. people aod must hane its solution from that tribunal 
bejore ice meet again. The Pkesidential Election in- 
volves the fate of the Tariff, and to that fate a future 
Gware&s will hane to conform, be our action now trhat it may. 
Now, as hi i tie year 1&32, the lute of hie liijjh Tariff is staked 
in the person of its eminent champion— its canaidate tor the 
Presidency oi the United Suites. That champion was defeated 
then, and his system with him; and he may be deteated 
again." 

' His system with hitn' — do you hear ? The 

defeat of Mr. Clay is the deslruction of the Tariff 

— so says Col. Benton, who was once a Clay man 

and then a Tariff man, but is now hostile to Mr. 

Clay and so to Protection. So says Senator CoIJ 

quitt of Ce >rgia : 

" Most of the Whig Senators who have discussed this ques- 
tion, have, iii an open, manly manner, admitted that the act r 
1812 was a hill passed fur Protection; that they advocated it 
because of its ample recognition of the Protective Principle: 
that it is a favorite Wing measure, to which all other mea- 
sures are subordinate and ot secondary importance. This is 
fair, oud plaC'S toe i*sue between the parties upon this sub- 
ject to be determined bu the American People— the Tariff Act 
of 1842, with its hish duties and Principle of Protection on. 
the one side: and tke advocates of low duties and an equal 
sys'em of taxation on the other." 

But why need we multiply quotations? Who 
does not know that the Tariff is the great ques- 
tion ? W ho ever heard Mr. Polk, or any one for 
him, claim to be in favor of any sort of Protec- 
tion till the late Prtsidential Election ? 



1IR. POLK'S HOSTILITY TO THE PRESENT AND TO AH PROTECTIVE TARIFF. 



From the National TnfeMiseneer. 

Housk OF Rkpreskntaiivus, May 30, U41. 
Messrs. Gal. s &, SeaTo^: Tin- in . rest winch 
I feel, in common with the<miz n- of Pennsylvania, 
on the subject of the 'I'm riff ami l"« Pruieetioii o» 
American labor, induced me to make hii inuuhy of 
Gen. Hardi* relative to the views <f< ad. Poi.K, the 
recently nominated candidate for ill-- Presidency, mi 
the subject of the Tariff. Hi* answer 10 thai in- 
quiry, which be his been s-og oil a* totuf mishtne 
in writing this momma, presents the facts in telatioii 
to Col. Polk's views on this H|l-ahBorbiiitf topic in 
such an im|ionaiit light, that I respectfully ask f..r 
them from the people ol Pennsylvania and the whole 
Union that attention which lln-v deserve, and I have 
no doubt will receive; and I therefore request you 
to do me the favor to publish the enclosed letter ol 
Gen. Hardin. 

Very respe ctfully, y ours, fcc..^^ ^^ 

COT.. .1. K. POT.K ANDTUKTARIFI''. 
To the Htm. .Iamks Ikvin, of Ptnnsyivnia. 
Sir: Upon toe announci ment «.i JaMRS k 
Polk on yesterday as the nominee til the I.alii. 
more Convention for President., which equally 
astonished Wl.igs and Locos, ymi inqtnrinyly 
asked, " What arc his opinions on the Tariff ?" 

According to the pr mise then given, I pro. 
ceed to answer jour inquiry. Mr. Polk is, and 
claims to he, a consistent opponent oi a Protec 
tive Tariff; has advocated the principle of F.ee 
Trade, substantially ; in 1833 was lor restoring 
the Tariff to the rates prescribed by the Tariff ot 
1816; and Ins been abater reviler ot the Whig 
Tariff of 1842; is tor its repeal ; and is in favor 
of returning to the horizontal 2(1 per cent, rates 
of duty which prevailed at the tune of the passage 
of the Tariff of 1842 

In the session of 1 832-33, Mr. Polk was a 
member of the Committee of Ways and Means, 
which reported a bill (which did not pass) greatly 
reducing the duties hilow those adopti d by the 
Tariff act of the preceding session, (Tariff ol 
1832 ) He made a lengthy i^eech in favor of 1 1n- 
proposed bill, and against the Protective s\siem, 
which will be found in Congressional Dehaics. 
vol 9, pages 11G2 to 1175. As a specimen of 
the views presented in that speech, 1 will quote a 
few short extracts : 

,; It appears finm this tertimony that the (hides upon wool. 
ens, (now hll> pei eein ) may no' only he reduced, but that 
twenty-fire per cent, will ben sufficient protect/an, prov.de:! 
then- in- (i corresp. inline rtductlon mi Hie r..w iiiiilerinl, mid 
the .Inly lie tull> mid finrly collected ; m d Hint me ii.aiiulac- 
turers of coitons, and especially of cour e"ct>uoiis, w old be 
aide tn continue tl.er business pnJUahlii at the n duced dutu 
of twelve a tnl a half per cent on then vul f reign unices." ** 
'• I pr. pose next ii. e-inhish, by testimony equally ent.tled 
to credit, tiie third pr. p sitiou, wh.ch is, Unit the ivmniit c- 
tures of the IJn.tt-.l stats weie in ii prosperous cnnditinii und-r 
the act ol 1816, and fur lislii years intervening '.itween the 
ye..rsl81fin. il l'-'24 and lUsothat theiictnl lSlti "ff,.rdidtlum 
ample Incidental Protection."— (Con. .Debutes, Vul. IX. mine 
1170. „ . 

•' The wool-growers consider the duty upon foreien win I ih 
importni.t to tlieir prosperity. Tki- tipiiiiou, I appieltend.is 
founded m error. Vi ry hole woolotihe middling qim'iiy. 
such a* we produce, is in.p.>rte<l. The kinds chief!} 'inputted 
me eithi r the course South American wool. co*'ti g eiuht cents 
and under the pound, or the fine Saxony wool, cistim; more 
I hii n u i c.lhir n pound neither of which do we prod me. or it 
we do; to <i very limited extent." * * * * 

" My own opinion in that wool should be duty free; but as 



wnnl-erowers think otherwise, we bnvo retained a dutv of fif. 
tmt pir rent, upon ilie impuited aiticle."— IConitrcssionul lJc- 
Ltites, vol. H. p. 1,174. J 

In relation in the Tariff of 1842 wc arc at no 
loss lor his opinions. Mr. Polk was ;t candidate 
lor Governor IN Tcntns-ee in 1843, in which 
race, you know, be was a second lime defeated 
by a large majority,) and duru g the canvass he 
lerunt'ed no opportunity to escape him to de- 
nounce the Tariff in the most hitler terms. In 
n spouse to an inquiry wht-ther he "approved 
of such a Tanff as woulil give Protection to 
Home Industry against F.reiyn Industry?" he 
answered, as I am informed by gentlemen who 
are perfectly familiar with his views, as given on 
the stump and in his circulars, that he was op. 
■posed to the principle of Protection. His answer 
in this and oi|i< r interrogatories will be published 
as soon as they can he procured from Tennessee. 
Fortnriitely, however, 1 am at no loss for an 
authentic document which presents Col. Polk's 
views of the Tariff of 1842 I have before me the 
'• Sy> opsis i if Gov. Polk's Speech to the People 
o/ Mud i son i.nd the adjoining Cnnntics, detiv- 
erf.tt at Jacks'in, on Monday, the 3d of April, 
1843. ' p'initd»iri pamphlet, 'orm, and written out 
ior publication by Gov. Polk. From it I quote 
the billowing »x'racts : 

" He took < ther views, briefly fire'enteil, of the subject, and 
proceeded 'o tie diseu-sion •■! n.e Protective Tariff nci passed 
li> t'e ln-t I). iiL-ress. lie rim wed that it. was n highly Protect 
ive TuriH. mid i ni one 'or h eve. ue. He showed that, tiy the 
Compromise Tariff ol If- 33, the t ix on no imported mlicle vvub 
ti exceed L'O percent, upon its value alter the 31 th of June, 
1842. Nil liivlier di ty tlnin 2U per cent, was imposed on my 
a tide after tie 30th of June. 1842, until tne3Utb of August, 
lS-1 ', .'ii « Inch hit er m.y the present Tariff law was passed by 
ii Whig Congress The Whig Congress laid violent hands on 
the i ompr. se Act of lroi and broke it up " 

"It was clear, tbeiefoie Mint the Lite I ariff act was not a 
revenue measure. It bud raised ihe noes ol duty so hitdi ns to 
shut oit imports, and consequently to cut off and diminish 
revenue ' 

'•Jiiilpiuj; fom the amount of revenue received r.t the 
Trensur. . under the operniiiuisofthepresent Tariff act; forilie 
his' quarter ol l>4$. us already shown, it will n- 1 produce an- 
nually half tl e iiiiiinint ol revenue which would have been 
produced •» ti e lower r-les of the compromise act, hud that 
act in en left undisi timed " 

"lie wasoppised to direct tnxes, and to prohibitory and 
protective iJntie-, and in favor of such moderate, duties ns 
would not cut (iff in p.. tui ons. In other wards, he was in 
faiwT'f i educing tin ilvtie- to the rules tit the Compromise 
Jlet.wliere the M his Congrtss found them i.ra the ZOth of 
June. 81;!." 

' I'be tsoiiih. nnd he with them, had voted for Ihe net of 
1832 becijuse it was a reducti. n of the rme, of the in t of 1828, 
ti m.i .I. by no menus so low n> he would have de-ired it to he; 
sii I it w:is t e greatest reduction which could be attained at 
the tin. <■ of us |j ssiici." 

" The iliffei ence between thcavrsc of the political party 
with mil ch in-' ».r. i\li ton iiiown) nets ami inn self, is, whilst 
then :■ re ihr nd'tcrj s "J I iistributiiili inula I RoThCTlVK 
Tkifk — meaxmes uhich I consider minims to the intrusts 
of the country, and'.-i cciuUytntJie.intire.rts vf the I'lanliag 
States — I lw.ee steadily and at ail limes opposed bo:h." 

These ( xiraois conclusively prove the hostility 
I of Col Polk to the Protective Policy, which he 
considers i -ruinnvs to the count ty, especially to 
the planting States.'" That is a sufficient argu- 
iii ii' with him. He thetefore is now lor "re- 
ducing the duties to the rates under the Com- 
promise Act, whtre the Whig Congress found 
1/ cm on the 3.Ii/j Jane. 1842 ;" arm Gov. Polk 
hiuisell stiuws i "the tax on no immrted ar. 



12 



Mr. Polk's Hostility to the Present and to any Protective Tariff. 



tide icas to exceed twenty per cent, vpon its 
value after the 30th of June, 1842." Then it is 
clearly seen that he is for a Horizontal Tariff 
of twenty per cent, with discriminations (if any 
are made) below even that rate. 

I pass by, without comment, the far-seeing, 
statesmanlike predictions of Gov. Polk, that the 
Tariff of 18-12 " had raised the rates of duty so 
high as to shut out imports, and consequently to 
cut off and diminish revenue." The subsequent 
increase of both imports and revenue under 
this Tariff have given such a fulfilment to this 
prophecy as must forever immortalize Col. Polk 
as a wonderful prophet ! 

During the consideration of the tariff of 1842, 
as the revenue produced by the twenty per cent 
duties of the compromise act were altogether in- 
adequate to defray the expenditures of the Gov- 
ernment, a proposition was made to lay a duty on 
tea and coffee, for which a number of the Whigs 
in Congress voted, in order to increase the rev- 
enue and redeem the sinking creoitof the Govern- 
ment. Col. Polk seized upon this vote to give 
a castigation to those Whigs who had voted for 
this proposition. This called forth a response 
from the Hon. Milton Brown, of Tennessee, 
and led to a political discussion at Jackson, Ten- 
nessee, where Col. Polk delivered the speech 
above referred to. He was most triumphantly 
answered by Mr. M. Brown, who clearly demon- 
strated that the bill of 1833 reported by the Com- 
mittee of Ways and Means, of which Col. Polk 
was a member, (and in favor of which he made 
the speech first quoted from,) proposed to impose 
a duty of twenty per cent, on lea and coffee. — 
At the time this proposition was made, tea and 
coffee were entirely free of duty ; and another 
striking fact appears from Col. Polk's speech in 
1833, that the Government then had '' six mil. 
lions of revenue from the impost more than we 
need." [Congressional Debates, vol. ix, page 
1174.] Yet, notvvithstand such was the ad- 
mitted fact. Col. Polk voted against a proposi- 
tion to strike out tea and coffee from the pro posed 
bill, so as to continue them free of duty. — [Jour- 
nal of House of Representatives 1832-'3, pp. 
390 and 391 ] But this subject was so ably 
bandied, and Col. Polk's ad captandum objection 
so thorougly exposed by Mr. Shown in his re- 
sponce B to Col. Polk on that occasion at Jackson, 
Tennessee, that I must beg to call your attention 
to the extracts from his remarks which I here 
append : and I do so the more earnestly as it 
gives an insight into some of the traits of char- 
acter of the newly made candidate of the Loco- 
Focos for the Presidency. 

Coinciding as Col. Polk does in opinion with 
Calhoun and the ultra anti-tarifffree-trade men 
of the South in his views on the tariff, it is not 
surprising that they should have been willing to 
compromise on him, nor is it at all astounding to 
hear that Messrs. Pickens and Elmore, the min- 
isters plenipotentiary from South Carolina to 
Baltimore, although refusing to participate in the 
proceedings of the Convention, yet, when the 
nomination was made, rose up in the Convention 
and pledged the vote of South Carolina for Col. 
Polk. And it now only remains to be seen 
whether that large portion of the Democratic 
party who believe in the policy and propriety of 



bestowing faif protection upon American indus- 
try, will consent to be handed over without notice 
or consultation to the support of a free trade hori- 
zontal-tariff advocate, who is the make-shift can- 
didate of the Baltimore Convention. 
Respectfully yours, 

„. „ „ JOHN J. HARDIN, oflllinois. 

Washington, May 20. 1644. 



Now Ready. 

I. Protection and Free Trade : The Ques- 
tion Stated and Considered : By H. Greeley, Is 
just published in a large, close tract of 16 pages.*— 
Price $2 per hundred, $15 per thousand. This 
Pamphlet aims to present a succint and lucid sum- 
mary of the argument for a Protective Tariff, meet- 
ing and answering the adverse assumptions of 
'Free Trade.' 

II. The Tariff as it Is, compared with the 
Substitute Proposed by its Adversaries; being a 
clear statement of every material provision of the 
present Tariff, with the reasons for imposing a 
higher or lower duty on nearly every important 
article. The several clauses are contrasted with the 
mischievous and defective provisions of McKay's 
bill. The purpose of this Tract is to show the benefi- 
cial effects of Protection and the utter impossibility of 
affording even Incidental Protection by a Horizon- 
tal Tariff. Price $2 per hundred, $15 per thousand. 
Orders are respectfully solicited, by Greeley & 
McElrath, Tribune office, New- York. 



Letters of Cassius M. Clay. — Slavery : The 
Evil — The Remedy — Emancipation— Its Effects— r 
Is Cassius M. Clay an Abolitionist? — Letters of 
Cassius M. Clay on the Presidency. 

The above are published in a Tract and for sale 
at the Tribune office. Price $1 25 per 100, or $10 

per 1000 copies. 

iii» 

Ten Copies for one Dollar I 
BIOGRAPHY OF HENRY CLAY, 

ONLY TWELVE AND A HALF CENTS! 
0=- The undersigned will publish THIS MORNING a 
new and greatly improved edition of 

THE LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 
OF 

HENRY CLAY: 

By Efes Sargent, Esq. of tie City of New York. 
Brought down to the year 1844. This work will be publish- 
ed on clear and uew type, in a neat octavo form, and put up 
with paper covers, with a new and handsome lithographic 
full length Poi trait. It will be sold at 12i cents for the sin- 
gle copy; Ten Copies for One Dollar. This is the fullest and 
most complete Biography of Mr. Clayever published. 

(0=* Clay Clubs, Whig Committees, Booksellers and oth- 
ers, will please send in their orders as early as possible.— 
Country Merchants now about visiting the city will afford 8 
avorable opportunity to those wishing to order. 

GREELEY & McELRATH, 
fe24 Tribune Buildings. 160 Nassau street. 



&T" Whig Songs for 1844.— Just published at the 
Tribune Office, in neat pamphlet lorm, a collection of the best 
popular Whig Songs. Price for single copies 3 cents, £2 per 
10(1 or 815 per 1000 copies. GREELEY & McELRATH. 

The Clay Minstrel : Or National Songster, wiuh 
a Sketch of Mr. Clay's Life, &c. By John S. Littell of Ger- 
mantowu. Pa. Price 25 cents— $16 per 100. 

O^ The American Laborer.— Clay Club Libra* 
ries and Reading Rooms will be supplied with the American 
Laburer, bound in boards, at the rate of $750 per dozen. 





:«fc ^ "Jill: ^1 




% 

>'* '. ^ 
















-* 









* o » o ' <^> 










%.,**V 



V«4 







+ " 4> 

.0 



lo o 












*£• 



1 *, <' 






°o 












> 



.^•X> 



°o 







■^ Jk ^ 



& 



,%& 



A,o 



